A fun, relaxing, British day!

Quick Note: I added a new picture to the The Jubilee Weekend (Part III) if you would like to see it :)

A couple Saturdays ago the weather was amazing!  It was somewhere in the mid-70's F/about 25º C (see new section "Things that are more difficult than they should be" below), so I went to the beach with a couple people I knew and a couple of their friends.  One of their friends was actually from America, but had been living in the UK for the past eight years, since she started her undergrad in Northern Ireland (Jealous!).

Oxwich Bay

It was actually at this point I realized I did not know any Americans in the country, and yet had a number of friends.  I think it's pretty cool that I am actually part of life in Swansea and not just living my own life on the side (much of which I owe to my friend Silas who introduced me to many of these people, so thanks Silas!!).
          While studying abroad during undergrad in Ireland, I was often with other American students since I was assigned an American roommate, lived in a building with almost all American students, traveled with American students, etc.  It's not that I didn't interact with Irish students, but more of my time was spent with Americans, and I think my experience would have been even better if I had developed deeper relationships with the Irish students.
          Based on this experience a piece of advice to those studying abroad: if you are going to study or intern abroad, try to chose a program (and a living situation) that will allow you to be fully immersed in the new country and culture, and not just partially participating in it.  Swansea is great for that with the living arrangements in the student village.

Anyway... back to my Saturday story.  So, they picked me up at the student village, and even the drive there was fun.  The the roads are a little windy and small, and people drive sort of in the middle of the road, but the views were great.  I also always love riding in cars in other countries.  It is such a normal, everyday thing for me in the States, but since I obviously don't have my car with me while I'm abroad I really enjoy being able to get in a car and go somewhere so easily, especially after taking the bus, walking, or paying a ton for taxis to get everywhere most of the time.

After a short 10-20 minute drive along the coast we arrived at the beach.  We parked and walked down to the beach, and it was beautiful!  There were kite surfers everywhere.  I don't know how they could surf that close together and not run into each other, but it was so cool to see all the kites in the air.

Kite surfers at Oxwich Bay

Now, as I said the weather was beautiful, and there was a slight breeze so it was not hot, like every other time I have gone to a beach.  I never even broke a sweat... however, that does not mean that I was not getting a lot of sun.  In fact, I ended up getting way too much sun, especially on my legs which hadn't seen daylight in a very long time.  Here is the proof:

Very sunburned legs!

Lesson learned!  Don't forget your sunblock, and even if it doesn't feel like you need it, put it on anyway.  


When we got back to Swansea from the beach, I made my way downtown because the Olympic torch was coming through town.  So I bought an ice cream bar and stood on the side of the road waiting for it.  By the time the torch came there were people lining both sides of the street for as far as I could see.  Everyone was waving the Union Jack and cheering.  It felt quite patriotic and was a neat thing to get to be a part of! 

People lining the street to see the Olympic torch.

Mel Davies with the torch.
(You can read more about Mel here)

After seeing the torch I was quite hungry, so I grabbed some fish and chips at the corner fish bar called Monni's.  The food was greasy and delicious!

             

         

  
I would highly recommend having fish and chips wrapped in paper at least once while in the UK!


After my dinner I walked back to campus to catch the bus back to the student village and saw a little bit of the crowds that were in Singleton Park for the torch celebration party.  Once home I just relaxed the rest of the night.  There isn't much that will make me more tired than a day in the sun! ... except maybe a day in the sun followed by a large greasy meal :)




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I have decided to create a new section, and I'm not sure what I want to call it, but for now I will just call it "Things that are more difficult than they should be."  Sorry I can't think of anything more catchy.  Let me know if you have any better ideas.  So here is my first installment.

Things that are more difficult than they should be:

• Converting temperature between celsius and fahrenheit (see explanation above).  

I realized I am very bad at converting between celsius and fahrenheit.  The actual conversion is C= (F-32) x 5/9 or F = (C x 9/5) + 32.  My dummy way of doing it, so that I can get a rough estimate is to take F-32 times one-half to figure out the degrees in celsius, or double the temperature in celsius and then add 32 to figure out the degrees in fahrenheit.